SHORYU RAMEN (Manchester)

Shoryu Ramen is a franchise that is popular around London and now has reached Manchester. It's been in the michellin guide and has an incredible reputation. They specialised in tonkotsu Ramen, a rich broth simmered from pork meat and served with ramen and slices of pork belly and sides, like pieces of radish and mushroom.

Manchester just opened their branch and to commemorate it they had decided to put a half percent discount on the ramen dishes for the past weeks.

It took us an hour in the cold air but we managed to snatched seats in the restaurant.

It was filled with people and best of all warm.

The meal didn't come fast enough.

Look how cute the tea is.

Some matcha tea. Powdered green tea.

The recommended ramen, Origin Tonkotsu. White pork broth with pork slices, radishes, seaweed and ramen. A soft boiled egg to add too it.

The broth was delicious, as expected from their advertised 12 hour boil and also the pork slices were heavenly, melts in your mouth.

I have to say that the ramen is worth the half percent off but for the full price of it, I doubt I'll come for it. Though the ramen was on point and the service was good.

I really recommend a trip to shoryu if you have the chance to try out their ramen.

Opening times : 11.30 - 23.30 Sat-Mon
                           11.30 - 22.30 Sun

Address : 1 Piccadilly, Manchester M1 1RG

 Stay tune every week for more. This is Sharon signing off for this week's posts.

VIETSHACK (MANCHESTER)

Mall food usually do not usually have good choices to run to, especially if you're into healthy eating and will not have any more french fries even if they smell so heavenly good.

Arndale Mall in Manchester actually has a market. Right at the opposite side of the manchester cafeteria. It hosts a variety of good food, mexican to vietnamese and houses a number of fresh food with it's own fish market section.

Today we're focusing on the vietshack corner. It is extremely popular, with guests lining up to the start of the market. It specialises in vietnamese street food, like banh mi and salads. It even has a signature burger on it's menu.

We ordered some roast beef banh mi and duck salad. What I love about vietnamese cooking is the mixture of sauces they use in their dishes, whatever they bring to the table always gets elevated up with their marinate or dressings. Banh mi, with it's toasty bread and medium roast beef is nothing without the salad tossed with a sweet and sour dressing. It is refreshing and has notes of squeezed lime in the mixture.

Duck salad, cooked medium, still pink in the middle, tossed with a salad of basil, cucumber, shredded lettuce and carrots and shallots, it has crunchy bits on the top, to which I have no clue what it is. Again with the dressing, but this time tangy and spicy.

I really recommend this stall in arndale market, they have a variety of much more things to eat. I bet delicious, every one of them. Though the line would be of inconvenience, the wait isn't very long.

It opens daily with the mall and closes around five.

This is Sharon signing off this week's post. Stay tune for more.

SWEET MANDARIN: CHINESE CUISINE (UK)

Sweet Mandarin is an award winning restaurant, having won many coveted prizes including the AA Rosette, the F word which is a Gordon Ramsay Local Chinese Restaurant competition, and the chefs, sisters, also served the Prime Minister and Premier Li. They have published a cooking book and is sold in their restaurant here in Manchester and also on Amazon.

Their journey is shown on their website and also in their memoirs which is also available to be bought online. The restaurant is located in northern quarter between the many bars and restaurants. Northern Quarter in Manchester is known for being where the young will venture to. It's abundance of cafes, bars and restaurants make it a busy hub of interesting cuisine, merchandise and services.

Sweet Mandarin was right across from a Mexican themed bar. It was a rainy day, a day when we were celebrating our friend's birthday. It wasn't so bad as we got to hail a cab for the journey down to the northern quarter. We were meant to go to this pizza joint, but it was closed for renovation and we had to look about in the rain to find another place to eat, and we stumbled upon Sweet Mandarin.

It wasn't very big place but the atmosphere was warm with lanterns hanging above and oriental screens planted about. The waiters were friendly people and we greeted immediately at the door. The place didn't need a reservation and we were placed to a table.

I discovered halfway through the meal that one of the people who served us was actually one of the sisters, the very owners of the restaurant. I was surprised to find her face on the menus before us, with her sister behind the bar making drinks.

We ordered a platter of dishes, my friend being a vegetarian and I myself loving tofu, had some vegetarian dishes, and the birthday girl also ordered
some other meals as well. She loves meat. We decided on vegetarian fried rice, vegetarian appetizers, braised tofu and mixed vegetables, lemon chicken, and a creative new dish that puts a spin on the classic peking duck.

The vegetarian appetizers were vegetarian spring rolls, salt and pepper mushrooms, with seaweed. The fried rice was served with mixture of vegetables, like cabbage leaves and chestnuts. It was a well seasoned, taste great served hot and with the claypot tofu, which had braised tofu and vegetables, cabbage leaves, spring onions, ginger, onions and mushrooms. The claypot had a healthy portion of vegetables and tofu, with a generous amount of gravy.

The peking duck, which is called crispy aromatic duck on the menu. It was exactly as named. Crispy, with the duck dried to the bone, along with the skin, which had been marinated for a whole day with a blend of spices. It was served with pancakes, thinly sliced cucumbers and spring onions, and sweet bean sauce. This is all wrapped neatly into a roll and eaten by hand. It was crispy and though dry, you could still savor the taste of the spices left in the duck.

My friend who has never tried the peking duck found it to be delicious and ate most of the duck, to my amusement.

The lemon chicken had crispy skin and the lemon sauce has all the elements of a lemon sauce, not sweet like most chinese restaurants would do it but enough to complement the dish.

We also had drinks with the meal. A bunch of cocktails which were named after the zodiac. I had one in the year of the pig, which I was born in and my friends decided on monkey. Mine was lychee infused vodka, lychee juice, fresh lemon and a splash of ginger juice. The monkey was spicy ginger infused beer, lime and vodka. They were both delicious and best of all hid the taste of the alcohol.

I really recommend this place for those seeking chinese cuisine in Manchester but it is fairly pricey. The whole meal had a higher price than expected but I think it was worth it.

Location:
19 Copperas St, 
Manchester, M4 1HS,
United Kingdom

Phone:+44 161 832 8848


Opening hours:

Sunday

12:00 - 14:30

16:00 - 23:00

Monday

12:00 - 23:00

Wednesday

12:00 - 14:30

16:00 - 23:00

Thursday

12:00 - 14:30

16:00 - 23:00

Friday

12:00 - 14:30

16:00 - 23:00

Saturday

12:00 - 14:30

16:00 - 23:00

For more information go to this website:http://www.sweetmandarin.com/



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This is Sharon signing off on this week's episode. Tune in next week for more.

YUZU RESTAURANT: JAPANESE CUISINE (UK)

I've only been in Manchester a fair amount of time, and I still do not know the city as well but I luckily do have friends who do. I've been brought to lots of asian food places and one of them is this japanese restaurant called Yuzu. Literal translation sour mandarin. I think the hardest part is naming something and trying to get it what you want it to embody. Well to me it is, I'm pretty sure everyone else find it easy to name like their book or something. I'm always making things harder than it seems, I do not know why. I'm trying guys.

Okay, so we go down to Chinatown. It's very near chinatown and right after the japanese restaurant we went to an asian dessert place nearby.

So anyway, going to it. The restaurant is quite a high class place, but not very big place with seating but I think that is what they're trying for. Cause as I have read in manga, yes I read mangas, I know, I'm a huge nerd, I love comic heroes too by the way. Anyways, it is always to my knowledge that food places aren't so big, they have to maintain a specific size, not sure why, also have seating near to where the chef is cooking because, well I don't entirely know, maybe to get closer to cooking experience, the show of it? I can't seriously tell though.

So we have like a few dishes to order. It was kind of pricey, but I really didn't mind. I had my favorite like order when I eat Japanese food, Udon with tempura platter, but there was like a different type of noodles, it's called Kishimen. It's flat and broad like a fettucine pasta. It of course does not have the same texture as a pasta, less sticky and more slippery since it's soaked in the broth. I love soup noodles, because of the flavorsome and wholesome taste you get because it's boiled with lots of ingredients and it's brought into the very spoon in which you drink it from. Oh the shivers of delight.

I have a love for tempura, it's meant to be not oily, and crunchy to the taste. Usually good restaurants do it very well, while others make it kind of heavy and oily. This one is really good, light, and definitely crunchy. It was an array of sliced eggplant, sweet potato and beans with giant shrimps. So there's always an extra plate of a type of dipping broth for tempura, well for some restaurants, not this one though.

I did not try the miso soup in the restaurant, not going to lie, dislike miso soup. I think there was a trauma when I was kid that brought me to dislike it so much but I can't remember what it is, and has cause me to hate it forever.

Overall, the meal was good, though I don't know if it was worth 16 pounds but they did use quality products from the taste of it.

They do not serve sushi just meals. So if you wanna eat that you could go to one of those rotation types of sushi places.

You could check out their website. This place is quite well known, and has a good reputation in Manchester. I, however had the best udon ever in Brighton, and ever since it cannot compare to anything else.

WEBSITE: http://www.yuzumanchester.co.uk/

Open: Tuesday — Saturday
Lunch: 12pm — 2pm(Last order 2pm, 2:30 on Saturday)
Dinner: 5.30pm — 10pm(Last order 9:30pm)

This is Sharon signing off this week's episode on The Makan Post. Stay tuned for more episodes coming your way.

The Makan Post brings to you weekly food adventures, so be sure to catch us every week for new episodes and dont forget to subscribe to us. Just click on the Follow button below. Also, check out our instagram page @themakanpost. Cheers.

themakanpost@gmail.com

AL TAIBA BUKHIRI, THE CURRY MILE : MANCHESTER HANGOUTS (UK)

Manchester is famous for a lot of things, football, obviously, the rain, lol. But I think the Curry Mile would be one of my favorite things here in Manchester. It's just a whole street full of delicious middle eastern and Asian cuisine as far as the eye can see. I guess it's cause lots of Malaysian food has Indian cuisine in them, and being in restaurants with that smell has brought me back home. Also, it educated me in the different Indian foods, and brought my knowledge of middle eastern cuisine to an all new high. As a foodie, I've always just enjoyed eating entirely new foods, happy about just having to taste something new and authentic.

So I've been going to Curry Mile a couple of times now with my friends, but this past few weeks, we've been going every few days which is awesome. It's not as expensive as other restaurants, and I rarely spend more than ten pounds for a huge portion of food and desserts. 

There's a place I think I've been more than four times this past month. It gives free drinks to Malaysians, which is what brought me in the first place, giggles. It was in malay, which obviously proves that I'm Malaysian if I could read it. So anyway, what I love about this sort of cafes, is that most of the time the people working in the shops are so friendly and lovely. It's very welcoming and they smile genuinely all the time. This shop is called Al Taiba Bukhari, quite at the very beginning of Curry Mile. This place is great cause they give huge portions for reasonably good prices. 

So I ordered chicken al faham with rice. Basically grilled chicken with lots of spices, like turmeric, red chilli, coriander, these are just a few examples of what they marinate their meats in. The chicken I and was slightly charred which is just nice, and the chicken is all tender and moist inside, like how I love it. The rice is fluffy and not undercooked like most of the places here in the UK, mixing it with turmeric and saffron, the rice would be a yellow colour. They always provide some salads and sauce, it's yogurt sauce and spicy chili sauce of sorts.

There was also some lamb chops, lamb kofta and kebabs. It's all deliciously served with naan, which is freshly made. It's like soft, and crunchy at the sides, the sad thing is that it gets cold so fast cause of the weather here. And with some grilled onions, tomatoes, and lots of lettuce. The meat is all seasoned the same way, with the same spices.

Kofta is minced meat mixed with herbs and spices and grilled to perfection. Naan is a type of flat bread that is mixed with spices and eastern with the meat, replacing rice. 

Since we were Malaysian, we got a pot of mint tea which I drink finished. Cause it's cold and the tea is great for battling against this weather. 

The pictures are courtesy of my friend Kimberley Wong, with my phone by the way. Hahaha. Just adding it out there.

They open from 12 in the afternoon to 2 at night. 

Address:
Al Taiba Bukhiri

21 Winslow Rd I Rusholme, 

Manchester, M14 5TB 

This is Sharon, signing off this week's episode from the UK. Stay tuned for more episodes coming your way. 

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The Makan Post brings to you weekly food adventures, so be sure to catch us every week for new episodes and don't forget to subscribe to us. Just click on the follow button below. Also check out our Instagram page @themakanpost. Cheers.

themakanpost@gmail.com